Cheap eBay intercooler kit on a 200/300tdi?

Has anyone fitted one of the intercooler kits from eBay on a 200 or 300tdi? I have been looking at a cheap way to upgrade the intercooler as the discovery specific ones at £400+ are out of my price range and have used one before on a Mazda RX7 but it had a much wider space to fit it in. from my measurements the space in front of the radiator is 760mm wide, 110mm deep and 300mm high if it is not go any lower than the radiator but could go lower if needed. On my 200tdi I will need to move the two horns but I there is plentyh of places to move them to.

I think this one should fit and give room for the pipe work

UNIVERSAL INTERCOOLER TYPE H 550x225x64MM PIPING KIT | eBay

But there are a few larger ones which could fit with modification to the end tanks which I can do as I have an ac tig welder but I am not sure whether there will be any benefit to going any bigger.

this one would need the pipes on the end rotated 90 degrees but would be as big as could possibly fit in the space and as the pipes are on the same end till make connecting it up simpler



UNIVERSAL FRONT MOUNT ALLOY ALUMINIUM INTERCOOLER SKYLINE 200SX R33 R32 S14 S15 | eBay



I was also wondering if there would be any benefit in fitting a fan to the intercooler, it would be activated at full throttle but I don’t think it would do anything above about 30mph so I’m just wondering how much use it would be.


cheers

I want one of these.

Intercoolers - Alive Tuning

IanFiTheDwarf said:

Has anyone fitted one of the intercooler kits from eBay on a 200 or 300tdi? I have been looking at a cheap way to upgrade the intercooler as the discovery specific ones at £400+ are out of my price range and have used one before on a Mazda RX7 but it had a much wider space to fit it in. from my measurements the space in front of the radiator is 760mm wide, 110mm deep and 300mm high if it is not go any lower than the radiator but could go lower if needed. On my 200tdi I will need to move the two horns but I there is plentyh of places to move them to.

I think this one should fit and give room for the pipe work

UNIVERSAL INTERCOOLER TYPE H 550x225x64MM PIPING KIT | eBay

But there are a few larger ones which could fit with modification to the end tanks which I can do as I have an ac tig welder but I am not sure whether there will be any benefit to going any bigger.

this one would need the pipes on the end rotated 90 degrees but would be as big as could possibly fit in the space and as the pipes are on the same end till make connecting it up simpler



UNIVERSAL FRONT MOUNT ALLOY ALUMINIUM INTERCOOLER SKYLINE 200SX R33 R32 S14 S15 | eBay



I was also wondering if there would be any benefit in fitting a fan to the intercooler, it would be activated at full throttle but I don’t think it would do anything above about 30mph so I’m just wondering how much use it would be.


cheers

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waste of money..it aint a ferrari

wiltshire landyman said:

waste of money..it aint a ferrari

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Would you say no to another 30 or more bhp for under £150 without reducing reliability? I intend doing a bit of tuning but I want to upgrade the intercooler first. You can tweek the pump and up the boost but without improving the intercooler the exhaust gas temperature will go threw the roof! The standard intercooler is well known to be inadequate for the job already and I suspect could be the cause of some of the blown head gaskets that have happened when there doesn’t seem to be another cause like loosing coolant.

MrGrumpy said:

I want one of these.

Intercoolers - Alive Tuning

Click to expand...

There is one similar on eBay at the moment, its a bit cheaper but not what I’m looking for. They say 50% more surface area than standard which is an improvement and fine if you don’t intend doing any more than a slight increase in fueling but I think I can do better for less.


Land Rover Discovery 300TDi Uprated Intercooler | eBay

AlliSport Discovery 300 Tdi Uprated Intercooler | eBay

IanFiTheDwarf said:

Would you say no to another 30 or more bhp for under £150 without reducing reliability? I intend doing a bit of tuning but I want to upgrade the intercooler first. You can tweek the pump and up the boost but without improving the intercooler the exhaust gas temperature will go threw the roof! The standard intercooler is well known to be inadequate for the job already and I suspect could be the cause of some of the blown head gaskets that have happened when there doesn’t seem to be another cause like loosing coolant.

Click to expand...

yes i would..i dont want mine to go any faster..wots the point of extra power/speed in something that has the aerodynamics of a brick,weighs as much as a small island,has the turning circle of a world war 2 battleship,and handles like its driving on a sea of jelly?

me i would put the money towards a 2nd winch or another plasma rope,something i would get some use out of

but i spose if ya use ya motor for the school run or shopping or up and down the motorway then thats a different storey

I looked very carefully into the cheap intercooler market and the info I got was that they were plate construction rather than tube and fin, glued together rather than braised. the end cans were cast and heavy making for very poor heat loss.

Now wether thats all true and even if it is does it make a difference!! In the end I went for a allard intercooler special kit as I have aircon and whilst it was twice the price of the cheap ones I am very pleased with it. Performance is very much improved and my pump was tweaked before I fitted it.
I doesnt make it like a racing car but torque is very much increased making it much nicer to drive, a lot less gear changing and more economy

and now I am going to fit a VNT turbo

I know there is the "if you want to go fast buy a porsche brigade" but the beauty of older landrovers is they are so versatile they suit a wide range of tastes and needs and thats why I have owned them good and bad for more than 30 years. My interest is on road tuning of landrovers and I get great pleasure out of it

HTH
Dave

One of the reasons I would like a bit more power in mine is that I will be towing a trailer with a car on it and at times its will be another discovery so a bit more power will come in handy.

I would also like to take it in the mud now and again and there are plenty of people who buy V8's for off roading because they have more power (my pall is one of them) but I can't afford the petrol and make BioDiesel so a tdi it had to be and if I could get a bit closer to my palls V8 to give him something to worry about then I will be laughing.

I am also going to fit an exhaust gas temperature gauge just to be safe.

I did a lot of reading about the cheap intercoolers before fitting one to my RX7 and while a bar and plate design is not as efficient at cooling as a tube and fin it has les pressure drop so if you go big enough then it can have wdvantages. All the ones I have seen are tig welded with formed end tanks and not cast so I think it just comes down to quality of finish on the cheap ones.

One of the car magazines tested about a dozen intercooler from various manufacturers and found only a small difference in performance between a cheap eBay one and a £500 ones from a specialist tuner. They also ordered a small batch from China which worked out at about £40 each and found they were identical to one costing hundreds from a tuning catalogue costing hundreds apart from a sticker.

I have also thought about swapping the turbo for something slightly bigger like a T28 from another diesel but haven't found on I can get at the scrapped yet. I think the Mitsubishi shogun has a turbo which is comparable to a T28 and there should be a few of them in scrap yards by now.

The vnt turbo from a td5 would be a choice to get the extra flow without loosing boost low down but they are not cheap and would take a bit of work to fit.

having just sold a 4.2v8 bobtail rr i think you will struggle to get anywhere near the power of the v8 from a doozil with just an intercooler and pump tweak.

and its more about torque with the v8 and the low down power having to not have to spool the turbo up.

offroading in the v8 i almost done everything on tickover and just above,the doozil you have to rev a lot more to get up n over and thru stuff

but as you say running a big v8 is crippling which is why ive gone back to a doozil
when i was competing in the rr a days play would cost me around £80 plus the to and from petrol costs

the 200tdi costs me £30 for a days laneing or playing
plus i likes the deep water and the v8 didnt and without megasquirt or similar as much as you try u aint gonna be as safe in water as you are in a doozil

As fsr as i know the td5 turbo is not a vnt
If you just fit a bigger turbo which is not so easy bearing in mind the 300 tdi intergrated design wont you get loads more lag
One tuning company is about to release a bolt on vnt for not much more money than a hybrid

Sent from my HTC Incredible S using Tapatalk

wiltshire landyman said:

having just sold a 4.2v8 bobtail rr i think you will struggle to get anywhere near the power of the v8 from a doozil with just an intercooler and pump tweak.

and its more about torque with the v8 and the low down power having to not have to spool the turbo up.

offroading in the v8 i almost done everything on tickover and just above,the doozil you have to rev a lot more to get up n over and thru stuff

but as you say running a big v8 is crippling which is why ive gone back to a doozil
when i was competing in the rr a days play would cost me around £80 plus the to and from petrol costs

the 200tdi costs me £30 for a days laneing or playing
plus i likes the deep water and the v8 didnt and without megasquirt or similar as much as you try u aint gonna be as safe in water as you are in a doozil

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My palls disco is a 3.5V8i auto so not that far to go, I would need a bottle of nitroglycerine to get near the bhp of the 4.2.

ccrdave said:

As fsr as i know the td5 turbo is not a vnt
If you just fit a bigger turbo which is not so easy bearing in mind the 300 tdi intergrated design wont you get loads more lag
One tuning company is about to release a bolt on vnt for not much more money than a hybrid

Sent from my HTC Incredible S using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

You are probably right about the td5 turbo, I just thought I read it somewhere.

Yes a bigger turbo will have more lag but if it’s only a little bit bigger only a little bit more lag. My disco is a 200tdi which has the turbo bolted to the manifold so just the exhaust side to fabricate if it’s different. You can fit the 200tdi manifold to the 300 to allow more choice of turbo’s.